Seven returning Olympians heading to Tokyo Olympics

Australia will enter one of its most experienced Olympic teams in history after the Australian Olympic Committee announced the team this morning to compete at the Tokyo Olympic Games next year.

The selection marks an incredible fifth Olympics for Dan Repacholi, a fourth Games for Dina Aspandiyarova, a third for Dane Sampson and a second Games for Paul Adams, Elene Galiabovitch, Jack Rossiter, Laetisha Scanlan and James Willett.

While we have seven Olympic Games “rookies”, Laura Coles, Thomas Grice, Sergei Evglevski and Alex Hoberg all represented Australia at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games and have experienced the thrill of representing Australia at a major international Games.

The team continues the shooting’s rich Olympic family traditions.

Evglevski will follow in the footsteps of his six-time Olympian mother Lalita Yauhleuskaya, Jack Rossiter’s sister Tori is a 2018 Youth Olympian, Elena Galiabovitch’s father Vladimir is the Pistol national coach, Aspandiyarova’s husband, Anatoly Babushkin was the Australian Olympic team Pistol coach in 2004, 2008 and 2012, while Penny Smith’s mother, Kim, was a groom to Equestrian Andrew Hoy at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Shooting Australia congratulates the fifteen individual athletes who have emerged from a thorough, rigorous and fair Olympic nomination process, to be selected for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.

While we acknowledge the Olympic selection of these athletes, Shooting Australia wishes to pay tribute and congratulate all the athletes who registered Minimum Qualification Scores and contested the nomination events for the spirit in which they have competed.

Congratulations also to the athlete coaches and families, the state and member organisations, clubs and officials and volunteers who have all given so much to the cause.

Olympic Team athletes now have the certainty of selection and they can now direct their singular focus on training and preparing for the commencement of the Tokyo Olympics in July 2021. We will be working hard with them all to ensure they are in top form at the end of an extended preparation period.

We understand the disappointment of non-selected athletes and we would like to congratulate all athletes on the spirit in which they competed for selection.

We will be working closely with the ISSF to plan a competition schedule leading into the Tokyo Olympics which will have our team members in peak form when the Games begin in July next year.

Shooting Australia is very fortunate to complete its nomination event process prior to the high level social and public restrictions that have been put in place as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. These restrictions were put in place after our last nomination event.

Pleaes join us in congratulating the Australian Shooting Team selected to represent Australia at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.